Dear Mobile Health App Developers,
We – patients and caregivers – need your help to reduce the demands of self care. Mobile health (mHealth) apps have enormous potential to lessen our burdens. But our needs are often only loosely related to what clinicians and/or the evidence expect us to do. Most mobile app developers have ignored this fact by designing tools that primarily reflect the imperatives of clinicians and evidence with little or no consultation with us patients about our experiences, our wishes or our requirements.
While I can't promise you that consultation with us is the magic key to successful, well-used apps, I can tell you that without it, your app doesn't stand a chance.
Two recent experiences prompted me to write you. Each illustrates the gap between the promise...
Lifestyle
Dear Katie,
Earlier today it came to my attention that you had tweeted your opinions about depression – the biggest mental health issue that faces this country, bar your ignorance.
Many believe that the opinions you spout are nothing more than a cry for attention, much like when a dog defecates for the attention of its owner, which ironically is a form of separation anxiety.
When I read your tweets I was not surprised that you had decided to shit on the floor in the hopes of a reaction – Something you have done many times and will probably continue to do until you fade away into obscurity.
Unfortunately this is not the Big Brother house so you cannot be voted out, and we cannot turn you down as you did to Lord Alan Sugar because, like a bad smell, you return to fill the nose...
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Dear Black Women
Yes, you are queens. Yes, you are magical. Yes, you are strong and yes, you have a resilient heart that is capable of enduring pain and surpassing any struggle. But I want you to know that above all else, you are human, and mental health is a serious illness that does not discriminate. Despite popular belief, it is not a "white people problem," and our young black boys and young black girls are also susceptible to this growing epidemic consisting of physical and mental dysfunction and maladaptive behaviors. Mental illness has no remorse, and once it enters you, it will try to strip you of your crown and your strength will not be identified with how independent you are or how successful you become.
You will find yourself face-to-face with your weaknesses, and it is...
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Dear Mr. Prentice:
When the leadership campaign is over and you have time to reflect on the actual policy changes that you will be undertaking, Friends of Medicare wants to remind you that timely access to quality health care continues to be of the utmost importance to all Albertans.
For the past 43 years that your party has been in power, we have seen both successful and unsuccessful changes to the delivery, governance, and quality of our health care services. Throughout all these changes, Albertans have been fortunate to have health care professionals and front-line workers who give of themselves every day to ensure that we, the people of this province, receive the best possible care. The successes in our health care system come from them. They are the ones who keep this system...
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Dear Governors,
As you continue budget conversations with your state legislature, state consumer health advocates urge you to protect health insurance coverage programs that help consumers achieve financial stability and good health.
Clearly, we have not recovered from the Great Recession and state economies remain fragile — as do the many consumers who rely on public programs to help them achieve financial stability. As states are crunching numbers and making trade offs, we urge you to take the long view. Protect coverage gains and ensure ongoing access to health care for consumers in your state.
Don't go back on coverage.
After five years of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 16.4 million consumers now have access to health coverage, many for the first time. Through the ACA we'...
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Dear Mr. Justice Kennedy
By now, everyone appreciates the pivotal role you will play in the constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act. The fate of this law depends on you. We also know how central liberty is to many of your decisions — from abortion to sexual privacy to gun control (though not, apparently, to strip search regulations). But no one seems capable of capturing exactly what your interpretation of liberty is, or what it might foretell for this case.
I do not deign to describe the subtleties of your liberty jurisprudence to you. But I do think I can provide a sketch of the intellectual terrain in which you will be deliberating in the weeks ahead. For this, there is no better place to turn than to the writings of Isaiah Berlin, an Oxford philosopher whose essays...
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Dear Councilmember Grosso
I am writing today to express my deep concern regarding your recent letter to Mayor Bowser that seeks to impugn the integrity of the District's procurement process and attempts to discredit Corizon Health through inaccurate claims. The letter is particularly surprising as it counters your previous statements that the District Council should not approve contracts and should remain detached from the procurement process.
As you know, in 2012 the D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC) contracted with Public Consulting Group (PCG) to evaluate its inmate health services delivery system. PCG found numerous shortcomings—1) the current non-profit provider, Unity Health Care, came at a cost more than double that of peer jails, 2) that no evidence exists that they had...
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Dear Mr. Christie,
We are oh so not ready for National Health Insurance! I will admit it will do one significant thing for we long-suffering Bahamians; it will, dramatically, increase the number of patients waiting to see a doctor together with the huge increase in time wasted waiting to see that doctor! But of course I am forgetting that from your ivory tower you, sir, have absolutely no comprehension of what the Bahamian man in the street has to suffer when he wants anything more comprehensive than a band aid on a cut finger!
What is required NOW, sir, is a complete overhaul of the pitiful health-care service (sic) we have to endure presently. For example it might be a good idea for the doctor to actually arrive on time, that is assuming he actually arrives at all! Or, how about...
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Dear UK politicians,
I've been meaning to write this for a long time but every time I stop myself thinking who will ever listen to me – an immigrant woman? However, the "I am an immigrant" campaign by the Movement Against Xenophobia has given me some courage to speak out. You might have seen some of the posters, comprising ethnic minority of various professions proudly proclaiming that they are immigrants.
This campaign makes me both happy and sad. Happy because, as much as you hate us, immigration and immigrants are the reality of globalisation. Sad because you have systematically vilified us. The fact that we need such a campaign in this day and age speaks volumes about your divisive politics.
The election campaign is heating up and I have been following all the debates. Truth...
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Dear Minister,
The attractiveness of clinical research in France is under threat.
France Biotech, AFCROs, le Club Phase 1 and the collective on the mandatory single contract supporting the petition started by Professors Montalescot and Renard and all the signatories of this letter call on the Government once again to take notice of the alarming state of this highly-strategic sector and to bring together at last the real driving forces behind clinical research in our country.
France today is seen less and less as a strategic location for pharmaceutical clinical development. This state of affairs is currently made worse by the accumulation of several factors:
Ever-lengthening evaluation time, especially for the early phases, by the ANSM,
for some months now, the strike action...
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